Ground number 235 revisited
(124th competitive European game in a row from 1977 to 2025)
Date of Visit: 25th November 2025
Orange Velodrome, Marseille, France
Olympique Marseille 2
Newcastle United 1 (Harvey Barnes)
Champions League Group stage game 5
“THIZ IZ THE WORST TRIP I'VE EVER BEEN ON!”
The forst part of wor 3 day jorney to southern France started on Munday when we flew from Toon airport to Paris! It took precisely 1 hour and 20 minutes from take off to landing!
It then took anothaa 1 hour 20 minutes for the plane to taxi to the terminal and to get through customs, where they take your finger prints now!—Absolute effin chaos!
We finally got a train from Paris to Marseille, arriving 4 hours after we left the airport!—A metro ride to wor hotel (near the enforced meeting point for Toon fans the next day) and finally some much needed liquid refreshments in nearby boozers!—Day one ower!
Day two and we heeded for a hotel bar near the pick up point, where we HAD to be there by ‘4.30pm bells 🔔 for the 9pm bells 🔔 kick off!—or else we wouldn’t get in, we were told repeatadly!
Absolutleee fcukin ridiculous!—
Anyway we stopped there til one of the lads (International Russ'cue!) sussed another drinkin den oot alang the road and so we stopped at those bars for a few ‘gargels’ before heedin for the meeting point where thoosands of Toon fans and riot ‘dibbles’ 👮♂️ were congregated!
Then we were piled onto the Metro to the groond in groups of 500 at a time,( like lambs gannin to the slaughter ) and got there after bein searched and wor phone tickets scanned twice, FOWER (4) hours before kick off! ⬇️
One of mee mates, now known az ‘🍺Graham the Gargel’🍺 waited in the queue for ower an hour before bein sorved! ⬇️
The groond looked fantastic with its ‘roller coaster’ roofs, but apart from a very few Marseille Ultraz we were the anly fans present! (Still 3 hours to kick off!)
Thin netting woz aall aroond us to stop flying missiles from bein hoyed, includin the view of the pitch!
Eventually the groond filled up and the players ran oot to the Champions Leegue tune 🎵 ⬇️
NUFC were in wor aall blue change strip az the game kicked off and within 7 minutes we were in front through Harvey Barnes shot, from a Sandro Tonali cross az the Toon section erupted with booze gettin chucked everywhere!
Malik Thiaw had a heeder just before the goal cleared off the line by a Marseille defender---and then into stoppage time in the forst half Anthony Gordon missed a great chance to double wor lead when he didnt conect properly from a Joe Willock cross!
--We got to the break one goal to the good, when it should have been 3, but within seconds of the 2nd half disaster struck, when Toon goalie 'The Pope' inexplicably raced off hiz line and oot of hiz box to clear a Marseille through baall, but Aubameyang easily beat him to the baall and aall he had to dee woz fire into the gapin goal with a well placed shot! ---What the hell woz Pope Finking aboot??? 1-1
This sprung the Marseille Ultraz into life and the noise woz deafenin az they went for 'the jugular'!
Just 5 minutes later and we were 2-1 behind, when Weah sent a cross in and Aubameyang fired home from very close range to set the stadium alight, in more ways than one, az flares were lit and the noise levels reaced chrashendo level! (The noisiest I've ever heard from a home crowd!)
Willock, Tonali and Elanga aall had chances to equalise, but their efforts either failed to hit the target or were saved by Rulli in the home goal and the game petered oot to a 2-1 defeat!
We should have easily won this game, but of course we shot worselz in the foot once again! (Or at least The Pope did!)
The defeat drops us from 6th to 11th place in the table and oot of the automatic knockoot stage!
Attendance: 64,521 (3,000 pissed off Toon fans, who were goin to get even more 'pissed off' az we attempted to leave after the final whistle! (Read on)
ALL THAT I KNEW THAT THE HOLE IN MY SHOE, WHICH WOZ LETTING IN WATER!" ("LETTING IN WATER!")
Of course, az we aall knew, we would be held back for at least an hour after the match, but it woz even worse than that az one of the bogs in the tool-shed woz gushin' oot water mixed with piss and 💩, which went aall ower the concourse we were held in!
Az time past it woz gettin deeper and deeper and before lang it went through mee brand new black n white striped trainers and soacked mee socks and bottoms of mee jeans!⬇️
After 90 minutes of standin in this 'river', we were finally allowed to leave and arrived back at wor hotel at the ungodly hours of '1.30am bells'!
It torned oot that we were the 'lucky ones' az news filtered through that other fans who were still in the stadium were hit with batons and pepper sprayed by the very nice ? riot squad--az their frustration of bein there for ny on 2 hours after the game had finished, boiled ower into pushin and shovin. to get away for the assualts by the local 'dibble'!
There woz one report of a naked Toon fan deein naughty things with a lass in the tool-shed! ⬅️(A Geordie slang word for a piss corner!)
Day three and the retorn flight to Tyneside! With hardly any sleep we had to drag worselz oot of wor scratchers to get a taxi to the airport 20 miles away! (£10 each X 5 = £50 in wor money)
The flight actually left 5 minutes orly (horray for smaall mercies!) and we arrived back at Toon airport at dinnertime!
However!---There woz a bus replacement to The Regent Centre in Gosforth az the Metros were off between there and the airport!
The bus of course went roond the world 🌍 to get there, via Callerton, Bank Foot, Kingston Park, Kenton, Fawdon, Wansbeck Road and The Regent Centre! (It had to be!)
On arrival back in the Toon via The Haymarket Metro aa went to The Strawberry next to SJP for some scran az aa woz 'Hank Marvin' by then! (Nee time for brekkies in Marseille!)
Of course, on leavin The Strawberry there woz torrential rain to greet me, az aa heeded for the Eldon Square bus station to get yem!
I woz like a drowned 'Isak' 🐀 (RAT) by the time aa got in the hoose!)
Thiz without doubt the worst trip a'd ever been on in 58 years of followin NUFC away!
PS: I mentioned in an orlier article that 'Glennn from Ashington' intended to gan to the U19s game v Marseille U19s, which woz played 22 miles away, despite warnings by NUFC not to do so az they would'nt be able to get to the meeting point at the designated time! (The rest of The NUFC mad-sad groundhoppers' didnt take the 'risk'!)
Happily for him, he DID get to the U19s game which we lost 2-0 AND the Champions Leegue game, to cross another groond off hiz list!
PPS: Special thanx to aall the lasses who looked after wor lass, who’d had a major operation in the Freeman hospital in Newcastle 9 days before the game. Withoot their help I would have had to ‘bin’ 🗑️ the match!🩷
Drinkin den photos! ⬇️
